A "proper" English breakfast at Keble College started our day. The dining hall is one of the inspirations for the harry potter films allegedly. I can see why. There was some small drizzle as dad and I walked to St. Michael at the North Gate, the city church of Oxford. It was wonderful to worship there. The “Very Reverend Robert A. Wilkes”, vicar and city rector, spoke with us for some time about the church, what it meant to be appointed by the Lord Governor and not the parish, and generally about being Anglican in today’s world, both before and after the service. This was a very formulaic but genuine service that felt very Catholic to this Southern Baptist missionary kid. I wonder what differences in the perception of Imago Dei this kind of worship reflects. The service was followed by a tea reception for the attendees. I have to say it was as good as any tea I’ve ever had, even for England! After, we were permitted an unchaperoned tour of the Saxon tower, and I took the vicar’s information, seeing as the church is featured in one of my novels in progress. I will now have to rewrite parts for accuracy, and am looking forward to it and thankful for the chance to really experience that place and worship with them there.
We ate at a favorite Thai place of mine, off Gloucester Green, then swung by Tesco to grab some food for the week. With some time to spare, we spent the afternoon at Blackwell’s bookstore, another location that I featured in my oxford-based novel, and I took some important perspective shots for reference to check against my chase scene down St. Giles and broad street. I was reminded how compact everything is, something my mind had expanded out in the last few years since being there, and having looked at google maps as reference. Indeed, there is nothing like being there in person, and since I’d not planned to write a novel about Oxford the first times I was there, this trip has already been invaluable to me for setting me straight on certain details which I will need to fix as soon as I get home! I’ve also picked up from Blackwell’s the newest Lovett novel first impressions about jane Austen, a modern heroine, and a mysterious hunt for a lost novel (presumably Austen’s?) Set in oxford! So that will be fun to read here.
Rebekah has reserved some tables for us at “The Bear,” the oldest pub in Oxford (and lowest ceiling as I recall), so I’m off to meet the rest of the group! Here’s to some good fellowship!
Rebekah has reserved some tables for us at “The Bear,” the oldest pub in Oxford (and lowest ceiling as I recall), so I’m off to meet the rest of the group! Here’s to some good fellowship!
(Author’s Note: Good fellowship was had! Since I didn’t mention it later on I’ll note two things now. 1. It was clear from the start that this group was going to have good community. We took the time to self-organize and go around the table to each talk about our education, our hobbies, our family, and reasons for being in the HBU MAA program. Within the hour we knew each other well enough to feel like we were proper friends and not just classmates, a real inklings group in the making! 2. I read from the beginning of Lovett’s “First Impressions” there, for as fate would have it, one of the early scenes I’d been reading was set in The Bear pub! I learned later that even Blackwell’s itself where I’d purchased the book was mentioned (and slighted a bit!), and that the love story in its pages was deeply entrenched in the city where I had bought and read it. A marvelous pick!)
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